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A couple of days ago I was able to devote another full day and managed to get up to the seventh course, including the dreaded tieing in to the oven opening. I think it worked out ok - I tried to keep the position as consistent with the dome gauge as possible. I ended up using the angle grinder with a diamond blade to carve out a notch on the two bricks that were going to hit the arch (see pic 2215) and then put in a small keystone between them - I have attached a series of pics that might explain it better. Hopefully this is going to be structurally ok.

I have also attached a couple of pics of where I got to by the end of the day. I noticed that by the fifth course the inverted v mortar joints became much more pronounced. And finally, the oven opening arch is still standing at this stage! I hope that there will be no changes to this status.

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Once the vermiculite dried out a bit the real fun began. Last week I set out my oven floor and soldier course (see the first picture). The company I bought the firebricks from had some 500mm x 500mm x 75mm firebrick tiles. I initially planned on using standard sized firebricks but eventually went for four of these tiles for the oven floor. I was glad I did this but boy they were heavy and it was quite an effort to get them levelled on the vermiculite.

As I was on holidays i was able to devote a couple of full days to the work. It's amazing how much you can get through in an uninterrupted day - espcially if you have help from another person. In one long day we got to an almost completed fourth course. It was great to see the actual dome taking shape.

I decided not to taper the bricks as I didn't have ready access to a wet saw and I didn't fancy using an angel grinder on all those bricks

To get the angles right I used a dome gauge which was made by screwing an aluminiun curtain bracket to an old broomstick. I then carved out a notch on the bottom of the broomstick so it would sit comfortably against a steel rod in the dead centre of the oven floor. This worked out really well. I have attached a picture.

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I wasn't sure how many pics I could include in one post so I started a new one for the next stage. I used vermiculite as the insulating layer on my hearth and it was great to work with something so light after all that cement!

We mixed the vermiculite in a wheelbarrow, first dry mixing the vermiculite and cement 5:1 and then adding water.

I wasn't too sure if the vermiculite had set properly, it was so crumbly. But after a few days it seemed to be ok (see the final pic).

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I am still in catch up mode with my backlog of pictures so will try and race through the next few stages.

With the oven stand I ended up going with Besser blocks that were made to interlock with adjacent blocks and above. I must admit it was satisfying stacking these blocks (a bit like lego ) and they went up quite quickly.

I have also attached a couple of pics of the stand being prepared for the cement hearth pour. I basically followed the pompei oven plans for this except I didn't use angle iron to span the stand opening as I will be putting in a brick arch (thanks to Tim F for the great idea). I made a mistake in not putting the arch in before the hearth pour. Does anybody see any problems in doing the arch after?

I have also attached a couple of pics of the cement hearth. Once again, while the amount of cement was nowhere near the slab, we used a mini mixer to deliver the cement.